Soker hasn’t painted many walls during the pandemic, but what he has lacked in quantity he has surely made up for in quality. This is a magnificent recent piece painted alongside Inkie and Sepr in the depths of St Paul’s.
Soker, St Pauls, Bristol, March 2021
Everything about this piece of graffiti writing is right out of the top drawer, from the colour selection to the letter design, the graded fills and dripping black spots. There is so much to enjoy here, and Soker is exceeding even his very high bar.
Soker, St Pauls, Bristol, March 2021
I genuinely think that in Inkie, Soker and Sepr, we have some of the very best graffiti writers and street artists in the world, a bold claim I know, but difficult to argue against.
Yesterday I posted a gallery of Hemper’s work, and if you’ve not stumbled across it, you can find it here. This is yet another beauty in a disaggregated style, a little bit like Benjimagnetic perhaps, up at the M32 roundabout. I would like to say it is his most recent piece, but I know of at least two more since this one was painted.
Hemper, M32 roundabout, Bristol, March 2021
At first glance, and to the untrained eye, this might look like a bit of a chaotic mess. It is however a beautifully crafted HEMS in several colours, without a solid fill, but instead a hint at fills and outlines. I think that this is the kind of piece that a novice simply couldn’t create. Appearances can be deceptive.
Here we have another absolute scorcher from the fantastically productive Hemper. This artist’s trademark is his extraordinary creativity; how many different ways can he present the letters HEMS? Combined with his enormous skill and talent.
Hemper, M32 cycle path, Bristol, March 2021
In this piece, Hemper has created a snakes and ladders board decked out in the garish colour squares that are so familiar to many of us from our childhoods. What an amazing thing to be able to do from a few old tins of spray paint. This is a magnificent, bright, happy piece. Thank you Hemper.
“Work to live, don’t live to work” – can’t argue with that.
Another one from the archives and one that I am so pleased to have re-found. It is a lovely collaboration from Turoe and I think Veks, although I might have that wrong. I think I never posted it at the time because I was uncertain about the artists, and it disappeared, quite neglected.
Veks and Turow, Dean Lane, April 2017
Dating from way back in April 2017, the writing in dark brown colours is clearly by Turoe, who definitely wasn’t on my radar back then (what kind of blind was I?). The character I believe to be by Veks and is masterfully painted, so crisp and clean and vibrant. I feel I should have done more homework at the time, but I don’t think I even had an Instagram account back then and was still learning (that never ends). A fine and once forgotten, until now, collaboration.
There are some artists in Bristol whose style is recognisable from the slightest glance. It might be the shape of the letters, the colours, the form or any number of common themes or motifs. Every now and again though they let their hair down and do something quite different. This is something different from Dibz.
Dibz, Dean Lane, Bristol, February 2021
This is a fun and rather small burner from Dibz, which if it weren’t for the letters might be difficult to attribute to him. What you can always be assured of though from Dibz is outstanding clean lines and finishing and this piece is no different. I caught up with him while he was painting another more Dibzy sort of thing on an adjacent wall and asked why he had painted something so different here and he indicated that he was just having a bit of laid back fun. Great to see.
Readers of Natural Adventures will be familiar with cat pieces by Daz Cat, but I think this is the first Time I have posted anything by Sage. I actually got lucky because I met the pair for the first time when they were painting this rather nice collaboration. Such nice people… and like policemen and doctors and teachers, so young.
Daz Cat, M32 cycle path, Bristol, March 2021
Daz Cat told me that he was using up dregs for this piece, not that you’d know it. This cat is full of colour and detail and the three-quarter profile has given Daz Cat some different perspectives to play with.
Sage, M32 cycle path, Bristol, March 2021
Sage, I think is responsible for some interesting mega tags that I have seen about the place without knowing who they were by. This, of course, is a bit of writing and I think he likes to do writing and characters in equal measure. I need to find and write about more pieces from Sage.
It is a great pity that Epok is a rare visitor to Bristol these days, preferring to paint in Gloucestershire, where I presume he must live. The upshot of this is that each of his pieces in the city is very precious, like this one as part of an ASK collaboration from a while back.
Epok, Brunel Way, Bristol, February 2021
This wall is a nightmare to photograph due to the amount of glare streaming in from the left hand side. Even on overcast days it is tricky. This is a spectacular geometric piece from Epok, combining his straight lines and angles with circles and semi-circles, spelling out EPOK. Although part of a five-way collaboration, this section of the wall was shared by Epok and painting pal Piro who combined styles and colour schemes. Good to see a new Epok piece in town.
Another Bristol artist who seems to paint walls in pulses with long breaks in between is Subtle. This is one of two lovely pieces of graffiti writing from the artist a week or two back both using a similar colour palette.
Subtle, M32 cycle path, Bristol, March 2021
This particular hoarding is notoriously difficult to photograph because of the bright sky behind it and I would guess is best photographed at dusk. These turned out ok, but everything behind the piece is bleached. Subtle presents us with his super-size letters and a some really neat bubble decorations in pink and white. The borders and shadows are very nicely done and this piece is everything one would expect from Subtle… big, bold and beautiful.
Dott Rotten has been spoiling us with his SPOILT pieces of late, and this red and green beauty on the M32 roundabout is an absolute classic. Dott Rotten’s writing style is fairly recognisable, although when he writes other letters it can take me a while to pin him down. However, it is not so much the style that gives him away as the quality of his finishing.
Dott Rotten, M32 roundabout, Bristol, March 2021
In that respect, there are some similarities with Rusk’s work which is always so neat and tidy. These joined up letters are brought to life with a light and dark shade of fill with some repeating patterns of dots and boxy segments. What makes it jump out though is the wonderful contrast with the vibrant red backdrop. A lovely piece.
